Siegrun Appelt’s light installation 64 kW for the German contribution to the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia serves as a visual exclamation point for a more conscious handling of energy resources. The installation, located in the entrance to the German Pavilion in Venice, shines with four times the intensity of the sun on a cloudless day. The shining light and the heat it generates make traversing the installation a truly physical experience; exhibition visitors can live the connection between energy use and waste. During the running time of the exhibition from September 14 until November 23, the 32 spotlights will use more than 50.000 kW.

The work calls on visitors to save energy and then symbolically donate that energy to the 64 kW Negawatt Power Plant. The plant was inspired by Amory Lovins’ term negawatt, which the physicist introduced as a unit for measuring saved energy.

The first energy donator for the 64 kW Negawatt Power Plant is the city of Berlin. The illumination at the Brandenburg Gate will be turned on and off over the course of several days according to a choreography designed by Appelt herself. This light-update of Berlin’s most prominent emblem will serve as a prime example of the fact that saving energy needn’t only mean abnegation, but also the creation of a surplus.

Light-Updates will take place on the following dates:

September 24, 2008, from 8 pm until 12 pm
in presence of the artist Siegrun Appelt, permanent secretary Englebert Lütke Daldrup, Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, and the general commissioners of the German contribution, Friedrich von Borries and Matthias Böttger

September 25, 2008, from 8 pm until 12 pm
September 26, 2008 from 8 pm until 12 pm

Though such large-scale energy donations are greatly appreciated, the work is particularly intended as a platform for voluntary energy savings in everyday life. Anyone can take part by making an individual donation, be it replacing an old light bulb with an energy-saving one, riding a bike to work or performing any other energy-saving act. Individual energy-saving ideas will be collected in the Negawatt Power Plant.

One can donate to the plant directly at the exhibition in Venice or via the internet portal Utopia.de. At www.utopia.de/negawatt/64kw, users from around the world can donate individually saved energy and thereby participate in a forum for everyday, visionary and extraordinary energy saving. That way, the 64 kW Negawatt Power Plant will become an idea pool for a more conscious handling of resources.

The plant can be seen as an experiment: will the 64 kW installation be executed in a climate neutral manner? How willing are people to make individual energy sacrifices? What new ideas for energy saving will emerge out of the Negawatt Power Plant?

64 kW is presented as part of the German contribution „Updating Germany. Projects for a better future” at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. General commissioners Friedrich von Borries and Matthias Böttger of raumtaktik are presenting 20 projects from architects, designers, engineers and artists – steps both large and small toward a better future. The exhibit is supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs.

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